The AU women’s lacrosse team had good spirit on Friday against Central Michigan, cheering their teammates on from the sidelines and yelling out instructions to help the Eagles jump out to an early lead. The team plummeted, however, during the second half, losing their second game of the season to Central Michigan 12-10 at Jacobs Field.
"I think we lost our composure, and we were inconsistent," head coach Emma Wallace said. "Central Michigan came a long way and I've got to give it to them, they were very passionate. But, we made some bad decisions in this game. It's back to the drawing board for us."
Central Michigan (1-1) led the game early by scoring the first goal three minutes into the first half, before AU responded with a goal of their own. Sophomore attacker Izabella Jade scored the first goal for AU (0-2) unassisted and freshman midfielder Kendall Goldblum scored minutes later to give the Eagles their first lead of the game. In the first half, AU found an offensive rhythm and separated themselves from Central Michigan, building a three-goal advantage.
The Eagles were in the lead at 7-4 by halftime as they dominated the game with skillful teamwork and enhanced tactics, but lost their focus by the end of the second half, tipping the scoreboard back toward the Chippewas. Junior goalkeeper Fiona Geier was a standout for the Eagles in the second half, making 11 saves, but it was not enough to maintain the Eagles’ lead.
The star of this game, however, was Eagles freshman midfielder Emma Vinall, who maneuvered the ball for more than half of the game and scored two of her team’s 10 goals.
Despite the loss, Wallace said the Eagles’ cohesion as a team had improved from their season-opening loss to Richmond.
“I definitely think the first half was better. We had good scoring spread and team defense,” Wallace said. “We suffered in letting ourselves be exploited by [Central] Michigan and could have had better offense.”
Wallace said the Chippewas’ offense wore down the Eagles and ultimately became too much for the team to cope with during the second half.
“I think they were very patient and executed well,” Wallace said. “They are a good growing team and we didn’t play our hearts out enough.”
Central Michigan’s Emma Hamilton was given two yellow cards during the first half. The Chippewas accumulated 4 yellow cards in total throughout the entirety of the game.
